Loading ...A gallon of petrol is the equivalent of 500 man hours. Sounds preposterous? Next time you use a power tool (electric or petrol), say a hedge trimmer, just think how long it would have taken by hand. The jet blaster, router, circular saw, lawn mower … kitchen mixer, vacuum cleaner, leaf blower. Scale that up to tractor, combine harvester, semi-trailer … container ship, aeroplane … mobile phone. Fertiliser.
There are 131 oil refineries in the US (down from 135 in 2019). The are nearly all running a full capacity. The top ten produce over a third of requirements – ten terrorist targets which would end life as you know it if they were taken offline.
A complex society relying on maximum efficiencies. We only got to 8bn people because of hydrocarbons and coal. Take them away and we have the big die-off. Take a quarter of them away and we have a big die-off!